Going to Market
by Alexzandrya
Summary: After finding nothing but junk in Smith Casey's Garage the Lone Wanderer, frustrated with all the near misses and dead ends, goes exploring. Rated M for language and not very nice things. Being redone, not perfect but an improvement! Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note – **So I decided to try again. Hopefully I can redo the seven chapters that were posted first, and then write new awesome stuff! I'd like to think this is an improvement I'm going to alter things that were written in the first version but I hope the first reviewers will still like this try! Anyway, new or old person reading I hope you enjoy the story!

I don't own Fallout 3!

**Edit** - Decided to delete the old chapters because it's like two sort of decent chapters and then not very good chapters!

**Chapter One: Prettiest Girls You Ever Laid Eyes On**

The girl screamed as she was shoved into a dark room. She caught her balance, and rounded to glare at the entrance. "He deserved it! The bastard deserved it! You know he did!"

"Shut up..." An exasperated woman growled as she slammed the barred door, locking the girl in. This woman's head was mostly shaved; half of her head was covered with short jaggedly cut locks, the other was peppered with small scars. A random assortment of clothes hung to her thin frame, belts, spikes and leather, and an old police baton was strapped to her waist.

"The bastard deserved it Madame! Let me out!" The younger girl raged against the bars.

"I said shut up!" Madame screamed; she had lost caps. She did not enjoy losing caps, at all, it didn't help that the girl's voice was very annoying. The police baton was whacked against the bars repeatedly.

CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!

The younger girl flinched and covered her ears with a whimper. "Okay okay okay... c-can you bring me some Med-X? You...you kinda gave me a headache y'know! I'll be real quiet if you just...just bring me some! Please?"

"No. Sit there and rot while I get your mess cleaned!" Madame barked at the girl and walked away, grabbing another woman by the arm as she did. You see, Madame didn't waste time cleaning other people's messes; she had more important matters to attend to.

The battered girl kicked, banged her leg against the bars, and covered the line of screams that tried to come from her mouth. Her head hurt. Her leg hurt. She did not like this room it smelled bad. Even her face hurt, why did her face hurt? She leaned down and pushed some broken toys away, and sat on the rug in front of the barred door. If she quieted down for a little bit maybe Madame would let her out.

"Why are there toys in here? Toys are for...for little kids..." The girl thought. She brought her legs up to chest and sat there, quietly, and waited. The room was very dirty, there were blocks and a teddy bear on the floor. There was toilet in the corner, probably where the smell was coming from. The bed could hold two mattresses but there was only one on the bottom, it creaked a lot she...she knew that...she didn't like being stuck in here. Her head hurt.

* * *

><p>Madame didn't come back for her. After what seemed like hours, or minutes, her head was swimming how was she supposed to know? Hell, maybe she fell asleep, all she knew was that one hour or minute or second she was watching the other girls walk in and out in and out of their rooms with a different person each time and Madame counted all her caps and then there was a big shadow blocking everything. There were two men and they looked rough, to say the least.<p>

The closest one had knelt down and was emitting some high pitched giggles. He had tan skin, that on a healthy person would probably look attractive, but he was covered in dirt and blood, and who knows what else, along with new and old bruises and scars. His hair was in patches and what was on his head was spiked up, probably with blood or whatever else he could get a hold of. His nose was very crooked. His friend looked about the same, the difference was a straighter nose and he seemed a bit paler, but who knew underneath all of...that.

"Heeeey there...you been a bad bad girl huh?" He grinned. It was not comforting. He had a raspy voice, and licked his lips a lot.

The girl blinked and crawled backwards away from the bars. The man leered.

"Well that's not very nice! Ya not talkin'? You-you better answer Brick, bitch...cause...cause...heh...Brick's Bitch." It seemed Brick's companion was as dumb as, well, a brick.

Madame sashayed to the men, "Hey boys, looking for a little fun? Don't mind her! We got plenty of other girls around, better than this one here. Fifteen caps for one, forty-five for two, with a little extra thrown in, free of charge!" She leaned in with a wink. They always fell for it, girls, more girls, and "free" chems. The boys were so doped up they never noticed. The girl watched as Madame led the men away. Her body felt like a mass of pins and needles and her head was pounding; so she crawled to the stained mattress. As she eased herself down she released a shaky breath and curled up, her fingers dug into the bed and she whimpered. Her head hurt it...hurt hurt hurt...she just needed to sleep just a little bit just a little and then Madame would let her out. She could get back to...work.

After a few moments, the girl fell asleep. Little did she know that her very very wrong world was about to get a whole lot better.

* * *

><p>Madame's world on the other hand, well... she didn't have to worry about that for much longer. An hour or so later, while the girl tossed and turned in her sorry excuse for rest, Madame was taking more of Brick and his buddy's caps, as the boys rather enjoyed the girls, and the chems that came with them. Brick's buddy was cackling as he groped one of the girls when suddenly several shots rang outside of the brothel.<p>

He stopped laughing. Brick started towards the exit, but was distracted by Madame's arm slinking around his neck. "Come on...you know those idiots get into fights all the time! Just stay here, have some fun for once! If you want some booze just toss me a few caps, and we can keep this party going!" A few giggles here and there and the boys were sold once again.

The men grabbed their girls and headed back into the dark bedroom for another round, while Madame counted the additional caps. A few minutes later as she was about to close the ancient register she heard another round of gunshots. The men didn't seem to notice, and the girl still slept. Madame however, knew something was up; she waited a few minutes as she listened for more shots.

"What the hell are those idiots doing…?" Madame took her small pistol from behind the counter, checked it was loaded, and headed down the slope and around the corner to the exit.

A startled yell, a shotgun blast, and a splash of blood painting the walls later, a half-naked Brick and his buddy stumbled out with their weapons ready. Even the girls had grabbed some shattered bottles. The girl in the cell had been awoken rather rudely by the shotgun blast, and stumbled towards the barred door. Her head still pounded, but she could stand straight enough. She witnessed the working girls' and their customers' deaths, she bit back a scream and made herself as small as she could on the floor, for moment she considered cramming herself under the bed she heard heavy steps on the other side of the wall.

The girl was wracking her brain, who in their right mind- scratch that- who was crazy enough to try and take out the Evergreen Mills gang?! Hell they probably managed to do it! She was terrified. Locked in, no weapon in sight except for her own two hands that might as well be...be something totally useless! She was useless! She hadn't been out in the Wastes in so long, not since...since she had to start working for Madame. She didn't even get to go out on her first hunting party! That's what the Evergreen Mills gang did, and because of this stupid stupid STUPID job she didn't get to do it and now she was going to die trapped like-like a Molerat! She could have been an awesome Raider!

She didn't want to die. She just needed...something to fight with, anything!

The heavy steps paused, and there was rustling and the ring of the ancient register unlocking.

She wished she had taken that knife from-from...she smacked her head with her hands without thinking. If she had weapons she could beat other people to a bloody pulp just like the rest of the gang did! It'd be so easy, easy enough and then she could run she could get out and and...She was not like a regular Wastelander! She could do it! She knew she could if-if she had to she could do it!

"Hello?"

The girl froze. She was already trapped and now she really was going to die. She was going to die and she wouldn't even get to see the sky again. She LIKED the sky as ugly as it was she liked it and now she was going to die. Dead dead dead, just like the guy with the knife and the girls and...

Heavy steps sounded to the bars and a large shadow passed between the barred door, and she whimpered and flinched away from it.

"I know you're in there, I can hear you..."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note- **I made better summary and then took forever to post the chapter where Mister Lone Wanderer really shows up! XD When taking out the five Raiders I was kind of thinking stealth fighting in The Last of Us, I didn't try to write a fight scene cause it'd be all repetitive and bad and stuff haha... still working on the other chapters.

Fun fact: While taking the GOAT Freddie Gomez wears red high top sneakers while everybody else wears boots. I wonder if they are lucky sneakers?

I don't own Fallout 3!

**Chapter Two: Anywhere But Here**

Several miles west there was a man who was having a very bad day.

His shaggy black hair was kept off his neck with a very red bandana, and his armor probably made his position a little uncomfortable. Dark sunglasses were held gently in his left hand, while the other covered his eyes. The Wasteland sun had done some good on his already tan skin, excluding the scars of course, but everyone got a few scars at one point or another. This man was called the Lone Wanderer by many, as only a few people knew his name, and unfortunately he was having a bad month, a bad several months to be precise.

He was angry, and tired of walking around the entire Wasteland constantly running into dead ends over and over and over again. West of Evergreen Mills, Smith Casey's Garage, everything was right!

"Nothing is here! NOTHING!" He yelled as he pushed himself away from the battered garage door and kicked the long dead automobile. "Just skeletons and Radroaches..." Smith Casey's Garage was just another building held together by sheer force of will. The inside of the garage had mechanical junk, trash, a skeleton in the corner, and three Radroaches. Only one light still sparked occasionally, and all the shelves had long fallen over, tossing more scraps of metal onto the floor. At best, it would be a decent shelter for a few days if he ever needed it, or maybe he would take the scrap metal to Megaton. "Should have just gone back after Rivet City shouldn't have left in the first place…" He was angry, and for a just a second he wanted to find something to kill. It wouldn't really be that much of a problem, it would be really easy. He chuckled for a moment, and then took a breath.

"Exploring. That's always fun." He flipped through his Pip-Boy, Evergreen Mills was the closest, though something was nudging at the back of his mind and he couldn't put his finger on it, it was as good a location as any.

He stretched, hefted his pack onto his back and tied the waist belt to secure it, double checked that the combat shotgun and much smaller Magnum were in good condition, and pushed his shades onto his nose. He was beginning to doubt if the sunlight would ever not try to melt his eyeballs out of their sockets; he was exaggerating of course, although the midday sun did bother him. If his Pip-Boy told him to head east, east he would go.

As he was walked he thought of the empty garage which made him angry, almost to the point where he couldn't see; which really became a problem when he tripped over a somewhat decently sized rock that had no earthly business being in his path. With a sigh, he glanced at his Pip-Boy's compass and handy-dandy friend or foe detector and found it empty except for himself, so, he turned on the radio. And with that, "Maybe" began to wail out of the small speaker, and the Lone Wanderer quietly sang along. The music was a welcome distraction as he walked for just over two hours to his destination; a short break was included as well. It was kind of strange to not see even a Bloatfly but he shrugged it off as a small blessing. He came to a valley of a sort, and he had to stop as air had replaced the ground in front of him. He looked down to see a short fall and large rocks that shortened the fall further. He eased himself down the ledge and gazed down into the valley to see old train cars and cobbled together metal buildings and bridges and what looked like a large holding area, though he couldn't see yet what was being held. He knelt between the rocks, and used his Magnum's scope to get a closer look.

Right, Evergreen Mills was a Raider camp.

A whole nest of them, and they were apparently smart enough to assemble patrols. A few walked across the old train cars, one in the distance kept running back and forth across an old catwalk, some stood relaxing on railings. It seemed to him that the Raiders counted on outside forces walking through the front passageway, as none of them were facing the small cliffs he was currently sitting on. Two Raiders seemed content just standing in front of the large pen near the center. What was so important that-

"How the hell..." The Raiders of Evergreen Mills had a pet Behemoth.

So the Lone Wanderer was fine with peacefully watching for a good while, observing their habits, until he felt crazy enough today to think about going down there. So he watched and snacked on Molerat meat for a few hours. The cliffs cast some decent shade and none of the Raiders seemed any wiser to his presence, so he let himself relax somewhat in one of the strangest places Raiders walked their lazy patrols and the Behemoth seemed to have the memory of a bloatfly, it would lumber around the confined space, touch the side, jerk and repeat. After he watched this enough times that he stopped laughing, he came to realize that the cage was electrified.

"Who taught Raiders these things, really?" He mumbled to himself as he rummaged through his pack for the Tumblers Today magazine he had found in the very very frustrating garage. Movement caught his eye as a few more Raiders came from the largest building in the valley, one seemed to be dragging something. He watched as the gatekeeper Raiders talked with the building Raiders, and then they in turn spoke to the Raider who paced the ancient train car. A few moments later the building Raiders tossed what was obviously a body into the pen from the top of the train that, the small group of Raiders had a little party over watching the Behemoth maim and toss the body like a rag doll. With his scope on the spot just in front of the large pen, he noticed what had to be the generator for the electricity, and the machine looked like it had seen better days. Just one good hit would probably destroy it. He packed his things up, had a few sips of water, and aimed with his Magnum. It would be loud, very loud, but he figured they would have bigger things to worry about than him.

The shot echoed across the valley and with a small explosion the generator was done for and so were the Raiders. The Behemoth went berserk as soon as it realized when it flailed about with its new toy the walls didn't shock it. The fence surrounding it was destroyed with a swing of its arm and the Raiders scattered like Radroaches when the light came on. A rampaging Behemoth was entertaining when he didn't have to deal with it, so much so the he laughed. A lot, maybe a little too much, but he was having a terrible day. He laughed until the the Behemoth lumbered groggily back and forth as it oozed blood from multiple gunshot wounds. A little bang, and there would be no more Behemoth. He took two frag mines from his pack and after a few strategic hops down the small cliffs he was hidden behind the old train cars. He hummed as he slowly made his way through the bodies watching the Behemoth. As it was about to turn around he flopped to the ground. What was one more body to a Behemoth? When its back was turned he dropped two mines in its footprints and ran.

"Hey ya big lug! Yoohoo! Over here! COME AND GET ME!" He waved his arms and jumped and the Behemoth roared and came running, directly into the mines.

BeepbeepbeepBEEPBEEPBEEP BOOM!

When the dust cleared the Behemoth was down, and its leg was blown, not very cleanly, off. He started to chuckle but turned it into a cough and cleared his throat. "Exploring is good...Looting too." The Raiders had several weapons that could most likely be salvaged with enough time. Unfortunately he did not currently have time to do it and that meant going into the building that had to contain several Raiders.

"Fun fun fun..." He mumbled and moved extra bullets to pockets that were easier to access in a pinch, and moved one of his knives from his boot to his belt. He wondered if any of the merchants were making their rounds anywhere close by, with all the surplus weapons and other items around he would need a pack Brahmin or three to carry everything. Inside the building was a wreck, fallen chunks of the walls, stone and metal, littered the ground. His immediate surroundings were quiet, and his Pip-Boy's compass didn't show any enemies very close by, but he heard otherwise. He followed the sound of laughter and music to a hole in the ground. The broken floor sloped down and led into a large cave-like space.

Raiders were a pain to deal with on their own, _smart _Raiders were another thing entirely. The music he was hearing stopped and switched to one of Three Dog's speeches.

"This is Three Dog! Awooooooo! And here guys, gals, and ghouls, is the news... Now you may have heard of a little place called Big Town. Well Wastelanders thanks to You-Know-Who that isn't the case anymore! Three Dog is here to tell you the story, no the TRUTH, of how that hell hole became better-than-your-average-hole. Now, my sources say-"

"Hey asshole turn that shit off! I don't wanna hear this! I want music! MUSIC!" The rough voice of a female Raider echoed to him.

"Zinny ya whiny little bitch. I ain't in charge of the radio, just the bar. SO SHUT THE HELL UP! And ya need ta treat me with respect 'cause I'm uh... a mixologist! Yeah!" A male Raider replied with a cackle.

"The hell you are! You're just sayin' that cause the boss called you that ONE TIME!" The lady Raider spat.

"Like you didn't wanna hit your knees and beg every time he called you Miss Zinnia!" The male Raider growled back.

He shook his head as he crouched down, he felt like he lost a few points of intelligence listening to the Raiders bickering. He could barely see the Raider couple arguing at the bar, and to the far corner shadowed by a pair of working floodlights was a another one. A glance at his Pip-Boy showed two others nearby; although the higher ledges kept them from his sight. He crept towards the second path that led away from the ramps, dodging the trash and old bottles that littered the minutes, two thrown bottles, a few bumps and bruises he was sure he would feel in the morning, and five dead raiders later; the caves were quiet. His Pip-Boy showed that no Raiders were present in the large cave he stood in. He untied his bandanna to wipe the Raider blood off his face, and then wrapped and tied his hair back again. He made his way across the wooden bridges to the other side of the cave, and followed the lights that hung from the walls. There were brightly lit platforms with poles, and two statues with red lights strapped to their chests.

"That's...strange." He mumbled as he held his shotgun a little tighter. Those things gave him the creeps. On the bright side, he was ready for the female Raider, her pistol and the naked Raiders that came after her; after the blasts from his shotgun everything was quiet again, he smiled as he laid eyes on the cash register. Moments later it rang open, but as the noise faded he heard...a voice?

"Hello?" He walked towards a barred door, he heard a whimper.

"I know you're in there, I can hear you…" He said calmly. The Raiders must have captured someone out there in the wastes. Maybe for once he was in the right place at the right time. It would make the day worth it. "I took care of the Raiders, you're safe now! Are you hurt?" His voice cracked slightly. He knew what Raiders did and what he would have to do if he was too late.

"Please be okay…" He whispered so quietly he wasn't even sure he spoke.


End file.
